A journalist worthy of the title has fallen

I never met David Halberstam, the renowned journalist who was killed Monday in a car crash in California, but I saw him once.

About six winters ago, I was in New York City with my father and, having nothing better to do, we bought tickets to the premiere of the movie "Black Hawk Down." As we loitered around waiting for the doors to open, I spotted Halberstam standing tall and alone against a wall, a newspaper in hand and his jacket curled over his arm. I had an inkling to amble over and introduce myself, but in the end I decided against it: He was an imposing figure, not only because of his build, but also for the depth and breadth of his prose. Knowing his writing should have given me a clue to his personality, though. He could have been nothing but a kind, welcoming man.

In retrospect, finding Halberstam alone at the premiere of that movie about the American military experience in Somalia in the 1990s should have been no surprise. He made his name covering the big topics of post-World War II America — Vietnam, the Civil Rights Movement, the rise and fall of media moguls — and his attendance at the movie premiere was in keeping with his continued survey of this country's history.

It is the small misfortune of Pulitzer Prize winners to be remembered mostly for that singular achievement. Halberstam won one for his reporting from Vietnam, but I will remember him first and foremost as a great sportswriter. I recognized him that cold day in New York City from the jacket cover of his book on Michael Jordan, entitled "Playing For Keeps." The story focuses on Michael Jordan the basketball player but Halberstam finds the wide economic and social influence Jordan had in this country and abroad just as relevant.

Halberstam was not, after all, a mere reporter of the actions on the basketball court or baseball field. He understood that sports are not some isolated part of the American experience but are rather an integral part of the nation's social fabric. To him, athletics presented a public arena in which America's major issues played themselves out for all to see. Race, wealth, power and image are, at times, the heavy but necessary themes of his sports books.

All things considered, Halberstam was more concerned with the people involved in a story than with the talking points. For this reason, his book-length record of a season spent with the Portland Trailblazers of the late 1970s — aptly named "The Breaks of the Game" — is still immensely enjoyable. He manages to draw out the distinguishing traits of the Portland players, from Bill Walton to the infamous Kermit Washington, with uncommon grace. As someone who was not alive to witness the events of the book firsthand, it was crucial to me that Halberstam communicate not just the physical abilities and competitive accomplishments of these players, but their humanity as well. And he does so perfectly, thereby making it possible for a kid from New Jersey to appreciate a remarkable but fairly obscure time spent by a few tall men in the northwestern reaches of America.

Thus, with Halberstam's passing there is a sense of personal loss. The man who created these real-life characters is gone.

There is another type of loss at work, too, since Halberstam represented the almost impossible ideal for the sportswriter. Journalists are often looked down upon, especially by today's wealthy and egomaniacal athletes. But more so, there is the general notion in this country that a journalist is only writing about politics, sports or movies because he or she does not have the ability to participate firsthand. Halberstam was a journalist who flipped the script. He was not the guy writing about Michael Jordan because he himself could not play basketball. Instead, Jordan was the guy about whom Halberstam chose to write.

Halberstam was a prodigious talent, all the more admirable considering he was a self-made man, an idealistic Harvard graduate who got his feet dirty reporting on race in the South and on the quagmire in Southeast Asia. He was the spitting image of the old-time international reporter, a man who had seen the edges of the world and was therefore never intimidated when interviewing the hometown sports heroes. Halberstam wrote history, and athletes were often the characters in his books.

The premature death of such a grand chronicler of American sports is especially tragic considering today's ESPN-saturated media landscape. The world of sports journalism is changing, with around-the-clock television updates and the rise of internet commentary and blogs. Though these trends are not entirely bad, there is the sense that something has been lost. Halberstam was the antidote to the continuous SportsCenter highlight reel and funny but shallow anecdotes provided by Bill Simmons.

Halberstam knew the major sports figures of our time and knew what made them tick. He will be missed.